The Nationals Enquirer

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The Nationals saw their 12 game home winning streak come to an end yesterday at RFK as a result of a 9-5 roasting at the hands of the Toronto Blue Jays. Orlando Hudson of the Jays broke a 5-5 tie in the 8th with a two-run home run off of Luis Ayala. Sunny Kim gave up two more in the 9th to put the game out of reach. On the heels of another bad start the last time out against Texas, Tony Armas Jr. continues to tease; and disappoint – after an unhittable start, he didn't make it through 5 innings yesterday. With the loss, and Atlanta's 8-1 shellacking of the faltering O's, the Nats lead in the NL East stands at 3 games over the surging Braves.

>The Nats get a well deserved day off today before welcoming the Pittsburgh Pirates to RFK for a three game set before heading to Chicago for three with the Cubs over the weekend. Ryan Drese takes the hill Tuesday for the Nats against Pittsburgh's Josh Fogg.

>After another dud by Armas, the big question remains whether the Nationals have enough pitching to make it through the dog days of summer. Obviously, pitching will determine if the Nats are contenders or pretenders. The answer is in the arms. Unfortunately the Nats can't pitch Livan Hernandez every day (although he'd probably take the ball every time if you asked him). The ace of the staff had another stellar performance Saturday night. Esteban Loaiza was solid on Friday night and has been much, much better than his 3-5 record shows (he's gotten no run support); and Jon Patterson, bad back permitting, should be fine. But the ability of the "other guys" filling the fourth and fifth slots in the rotation will have as much to do with a serious run for the playoffs as any other factor. Armas is certainly not cutting it. On-again-off-again Ryan Drese is nothing but a big question mark. Who else? Sunny Kim is a crapshoot. Zach Day is almost ready to return, but he was awful before going down with a fractured arm. Is there any reason to believe he'll be any more effective now?

It seems that Jim Bowden's hands are tied. For one thing most of the big names who are rumored to be available as the trading deadline approaches are too expensive. Then there's this little problem: the Nats really don't have much to trade away after years of being bled dry by the rest of the majors while in Montreal. For what it's worth, the Nats have only one prospect who ranked in Baseball America's 2005 Top 100 Prospects: left-handed pitcher Mike Hinckley. Hinckley, by the way, improved to 2-3 with a 4.47 ERA for the Single A Potomac Nationals with 8 innings of 2 hit, shutout ball in an 8-0 win over Frederick yesterday. He also walked five and struck out six. Plus, Bowden can't take a chance on making a big splash before the trading deadline for fear that a bad deal would make him look bad in the eyes of the new ownership group - whoever that may be. So for those reasons, don't expect to see any of the following in Washington this year:

- Eric Milton (CIN- $5,333,333/year - 16 starts: 3-9 7.70 ERA)
- Roy Oswalt (HOU - $5,900,000/year - 16 starts 9-7 2.70 ERA)
- Kip Wells (PIT - $3,175,000 - 16 starts 5-7 4.26 ERA)
- Jason Schmidt (SF - $8,187,500 - 13 starts 5-3 4.83 ERA)

But it’s clear that the Nats need to strengthen their starting rotation if they intend to contend. What’s unclear is where this help will come from, if it comes at all.

>Nats fans should also be paying attention to what's happening roughly 200 miles to the north in the Bronx, where Yankee GM Brian Cashman is on the hot seat for the underperforming Steinbrenner All-Stars. Why does this matter? Because by the end of the summer, your Nationals will be sold by MLB to the highest bidder (or the best-connected bidder). While there's no doubt that Jim Bowden deserves a chance to steer the ship for the foreseeable future, it's possible that a new ownership group will decide to clear the decks and revamp the entire organization - starting with the front office. And if that happens, Brian Cashman, who has ties to the DC area, could be a leading candidate for Jim Bowden's job.

>Nats fans got a bit of a scare when Nick Johnson left yesterday’s game in the 7th with a bruised heel after an awkward play at the plate, which Robinson blames entirely on Greg Zaun.

>After arriving home to find their cars broken into (or in the case of Marlon Byrd, stolen), Mark Tuohey, chairman of the D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission (the group in charge of RFK) apologized on Saturday and assured the team that security would be improved. Tuohey’s explanation, according to MLB.com? “The bad guys got in and took advantage of a situation.” Marlon Byrd’s explanation, according to the Post? “Bottom line, it was a [expletive] job done here by the people who work here, a [expletive] job here.”

(Written by Chris Kelly and originally posted 6/27/2005 at DCist.com)

Nats Treading Water On the Road

The Nationals salvaged a weekend in the Lone Star State with an 8-2 victory yesterday over the Rangers, led by Brad Wilkerson’s 4 RBI and a solid start by Sunny Kim. After dropping back-to-back games on Friday and Saturday, the Nats continue their 9 game road jaunt with a visit to Pittsburgh, playing .500 ball (3-3) on the trip. Ace Livan Hernandez takes the hill tonight in Pittsburgh against Mark Redman.

Of course, the big news on Friday was that MLB handed suspensions to the major participants in last Tuesday’s “Pine Tar Wars” in Anaheim: Angel reliever Brendan Donnelly was suspended for 10 games, and both managers got hit with 1-game suspensions and $1,000 fines. Old Frank felt this was too harsh and appealed; he has a hearing today via conference call with MLB suits to plead his case. Nat’s right fielder/loose-cannon Jose Guillen, who was escorted off the field during the incident by three teammates and later tied Wednesday’s game with a profanity-laced 2-run homerun, was fined $500 for his involvement in the on-field fracas. The fine wasn’t levied against Jose for referring to Angel’s manager Mike Scioscia as “a piece of garbage” in post-game comments Wednesday night. While he should be commended for coming to the defense of his manger it’s a little surprising, and a little troubling, that Guillen, who claims that all his problems are in the past, was by all accounts still seething about Scioscia almost 24 hours after Tuesday night’s fireworks. When you consider that by all accounts he was in the wrong last year when he flipped out on Scioscia after being pulled for a pinch runner late in the season, with his team battling for the playoffs, it seems that much more troubling. So far, so good in DC, but for how long?

Coming around? In his last 10 games, Christian Guzman is batting .321 (9-28) with 2 HR & 3RBI, raising his average to .207.

Nats have benefited from the contributions of two Ranger cast-offs in recent days: Ryan Drese was stellar in his debut on Wednesday (8IP, 2H, 0R, 4BB, 3K), and recent call-up Travis Hughes (taking the place of DL-bound T.J. Tucker) picked up the slack for Sunny Kim yesterday and earned his first career win with 1.1 shutout innings of 1 hit ball.

Obviously it’s much too early to judge the Ohka for Spivey trade, but let’s take a quick look at who’s got the upper hand so far: Spivey is hitting at a .138 clip, with 4 hits and 8 strikeouts in 9 games. Meanwhile, Tomo Ohka threw a complete game shutout last Tuesday night in his first outing since being traded to the Brewers (but keep in mind it came at the expense of the AAA Devil Rays). Ohka faces actual big league talent tonight when his Brewers take on Greg Maddux and the Cubs.

(Written by Chris Kelly and originally posted 6/20/2005 at DCist.com)

Let The Good Times Roll

Call 'em "The Comeback Kids", "The One-Run Wonders", "The Cardiac Kids"; doesn't matter. Call 'em whatever you want, but your first place Washington Nationals extended their 10-game winning streak yesterday with yet another 1-run victory (8 out of their last 13 wins have been by 1 run), downing the Seattle Mariners 3-2 in front of 37,170 sun-drenched fans at RFK. The win capped off an astonishingly good home stand (12-1) and their third series sweep in a row (Seattle, Oakland, and Florida all got the broom). With that, your Nationals own the best home record in the Major Leagues (24-9), thanks in no small part to the one million-plus fans who've now packed into RFK to root, root, root for the home team.

But now the Nats head West for a 9 game road trip, and so far this season the road has been anything but friendly. The Nats are an ugly 13-17 away from home. It's been an incredible run thus far, but the next two series away from home against AL West powerhouses LAAoA and Texas should give us a better idea of what this Nats team is made of. Esteban Loaiza takes the mound for the Nats against the Angels' Paul (no relation to Marlon) Byrd this evening.

On Friday, the Nats bid farewell to disgruntled starter Tomo Ohka, shipping him out to Milwaukee for second baseman Junior Spivey. You remember, of course, last Saturday, when Ohka disrespected Frank Robinson by turning his back on his manager when he came out to take the ball after Ohka got into a jam in the fourth inning against the Marlins? Well, apparently showing up your manager is a tradable offense in these parts, because that seems to be the impetus for this head-scratcher of a trade. What was GM Jim Bowden thinking? This trade makes absolutely no sense on many levels. Here are three of them:

1. Even if Tomo Ohka pulled down his pants and mooned Old Frank when he came out give him the hook, you don't trade pitching unless you're filling a glaring hole on your roster. You just don't. You can never have enough pitching, and even mediocre pitchers (like Ohka) have value. In this case, we're talking about opening up a big hole in the 5th spot in the rotation, and as inconsistent as Ohka had been all season (his 4-3 record, 3.33 ERA might be a bit misleading), now you're relying on the enigmatic Sunny Kim and or the dreadful Ryan Drese (released by Texas after going 4-6 with a 6.46 ERA in 12 games for the Rangers), who was picked up off of waivers on Friday.

2. It's not that it's a bad trade - Junior Spivey is a perfectly good player, a former All Star 2nd baseman; It's just that it's a dumb trade - You've already got an All-Star caliber 2nd baseman in Jose Vidro who will be back from the DL by after the All Star Break at worst. And now Vidro is claiming that he'll be ready to return from the combo high ankle sprain/torn tendon by the time the Nats return from their 9-game road trip. I know, I know, Spivey's 2-run homer on Sunday was the difference in the Nat's win over the Mariners, but in the long run his addition to the roster could potentially do more harm than good. Read on.

3. This isn't just a dumb move on a player-personnel level, it's dangerous, when you consider the trade's potential to upset clubhouse chemistry. Bowden seems to have forgotten the old adage "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Sure Ohka was miserable and wanted to be traded, and for now Spivey is all smiles and happy to be here, but what happens when he's riding the bench come August? Spivey is a starter, has always been a starter. How will he react to being a role-player? And once Vidro returns, they'll have too many infielders on the roster. Who'll get shipped out? Jamey Carroll has held down the fort admirably since Vidro went down, and has done everything you could ask of a role player. Carols Baerga is good for a pinch hit or a spot start, but more importantly he's the team's $300,000-a-year cheerleader, by all accounts a great clubhouse guy as important for doling out hugs as he is for a pinch hit. But someone will have to go...

Last but not least: in case you missed it, a must-read by the Washington Post's Dave Sheinin in Friday's edition
on the long road to the Big Show by career minor leaguer Rick Short, who made finally got called up to the majors on Thursday, after 11 years of toiling in the minors. In a positively Rudy-esque moment Friday night, Short singled in his first big-league at bat against Seattle's Joel Pineiro, driving in a run. Sadly enough, Short was sent back down to AAA on Saturday to make room on the roster for Ryan Drese.

(Written by Chris Kelly and originally posted 6/13/2005 at DCist.com)